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Escape from Paradise, – Now being made into a movie!

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The book’s sensational reviews!

“It took me two and a half evenings to complete your un-put-downable book…it is a unique contribution to the appreciation of a life in Singapore. Thank you for having written it.”C. V. Devan Nair, former President of Singapore.

“Bought the book from Select this weekend and can’t put it down! It’s a great read! And so nostalgic for me—the good old days!” Glen Goei, writer and director of the Miramax film That’s the Way I Like It and who played the title role opposite Anthony Hopkins in the London production of M. Butterfly. Mr. Goei’s latest film isThe Blue Mansion – Click for the trailer!

“It is a remarkable story and so full of intrigue that it reads at times like fiction.” Jonathan Burnham, Editor in Chief & President, Talk Miramax Books.

“This book out-Dallas, Dallas. No one has written so well of the other side of paradise,” Francis T. Seow, former Solicitor General of Singapore

ThunderBall Films is successfully putting together the movie production of Escape from Paradise and has received a new LOI (Letter of Intent) from actress Bai Ling who starred with Richard Gere in the film Red Cross.

This includes a commitment from a CPA firm who does tax credit financing in Ireland, a possible location to film, as part of the package needed for investors – along with the CPA firm’s commitment to apply for and finance the tax credits if ThunderBall does shoot in Ireland and what portion of the budget they would provide.
For inquiries, please contact John Harding at jbharding@gmail.com.

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Romney would (have) kill(ed) the home mortgage income tax deduction

To the left is Romney the White Man at the second debate on October 16th. Right, at his appearance on Univision on September 19th where etch-a-face Mitt appeared with a whole new brown face-color (he forgot to darken his hands). Will Romney’s appearance in brown-face make inroads with Latino voters? Careful Mitt, there could be a serious trade-off: how is your brown-face going to affect the votes of the White Men?

Mitt Romney has stated he will make up lowering tax rates by disallowing certain income tax deductions. However, Romney has not been willing to specify exactly which deductions will be eliminated—that is, until an unsettled Romney blurted out the awful truth during the second debate.

Romney stated, “”I’m going to bring rates down across the board for everybody, but I’m going to limit deductions and exemptions and credits, particularly for people at the high end,”

“I’ll pick a number – $25,000 of deductions and credits, and you can decide which ones to use,” Romney said with the speed of a used-car salesman.

According to Romney, you could apply the $25,000 to what ever deduction or deductions you choose—mortgage interest, educational expenses, child care, medical expenses, etc.

Since mortgage interest, is, for many, the largest deductible amount, Romney’s tax deduction plan affects mainly mortgage interest. This, in turn, affects housing prices, employment for builders of new homes, and the economy, in general.

A foreclosure after December 31, 2012 could spell disaster!

Most Americans do not realize that the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act expires on December 31, 2012.

When this act expires, the unpaid amount of a foreclosure will be treated as personal income by the IRS. This translates in to an IRS debtors’ prison for those many of the foreclosed on after 2012. Only those in the few states which permit a non-judicial foreclosure may be exempt from this IRS rule.

But does the Romney tax plan save money?

Lowering the rate would cost $4.8 trillion as estimated by the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan group.

The Tax Policy Center said Romney’s deductions cap could raise only up to $1.7 trillion over 10 years. This would not cover the deficit caused by Romney’s proposed 20% tax rate cut of $4.8 trillion. So the answer is “No.”

Does Romney understand this? Maybe not, but we think he does.

The important thing is that the American People understand what Romney is trying to put over on them.

Romney Election Loss Post-Mortem

Trying to explain away his decisive, sweeping and very expensive rout to his disappointed supporters — those 1-percent Republicans — Mitt Romney offered a new version of the that was so ruinous in its original form.

In his November 14th afternoon conference call to his disappointed donors and fundraisers Romney put his foot in his mouth once again. Romney claimed that President Barack Obama had won by lavishing generous “gifts” upon certain groups, including young voters, African-Americans and Latinos. It was little more than an new version of his discredited “47 percent” remarks that were so revealing and damaging to his campaign.

“With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest was a big gift,” said Romney, after apologizing for losing what he called a “very close” election.

(Actually, the election was not close at all. Romney lost by more than 100 electoral votes and more than 1% of the popular vote, perhaps as much as 4% when all the state results are eventually counted and certified.)

Newt Gingrich answered Romney’s latest gaffe stating, “I’m very disappointed with Governor Romney’s analysis, which I believe is insulting and profoundly wrong. First of all, we didn’t lose Asian-Americans because they got any gifts. He did worse with Asian-Americans than he did with Latinos. This is the hardest-working and most successful ethnic group in America. They ain’t into gifts. Second, it’s an insult to all Americans. It reduces us to economic entities. You have no passion, no idealism, no dreams, no philosophy. If it had been that simple, my question would be, why didn’t you outbid him?

“He had enough billionaire supporters, if buying the electorate was the key, he could have got all his Super PAC friends together and said, don’t buy ads, give gifts. Be like the northwest Indians who have gift-giving ceremonies. We could have gone town-by-town and said, ‘Come here, let me give you gifts. Here are Republican gifts.’ An elephant coming in with gifts on it.”

In the same conference call, Romney also told his donors that he had received a call from former President Bill Clinton, who told him that had it not been for Hurricane Sandy, he might have won the election. Yeah, sure.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on November 16 joined the chorus of Republican governors and other officials criticizing Mitt Romney’s assertion that “gifts” from President Barack Obama helped the Democrat win reelection.

“Yeah, sure,” Christie replied when asked by MSNBC host Joe Scarborough if Romney’s comments were “a terrible thing to say.” “You can’t expect to be the leader of all the people and be divisive,” Christie continued. “You have to talk about themes, policies, that unite people.”

Even Tim Pawlenty on November 16 disputed Mitt Romney’s excuse that President Barack Obama won reelection by handing out “gifts” to his core constituencies, saying in an interview that American voters do not have the mentality of, “I’m going to vote because of gifts.”

Reverend Romney dodges the draft during the Vietnam War

Reverend Romney on missionary duties in France

During the Vietnam War, Mitt Romney got draft deferments as the Mormon Church elevated him to the position of Reverend Mitt Romney. As such, while others were in the trenches in Vietnam, Reverend Romney toiled as a Mormon missionary for 30 months in France.

For six months of his 30-month stay in France, Romney lived in a luxurious Paris mansion at 3 Rue de Lota, Paris 75016 in the wealthy 16th arrondissement neighborhood.

The Mansion was built for wealthy American shipping man Douglas Fitch at the end of the 19th century. Fitch was so rich that he even could afford to have his portrait painted by Renoir.

Etching a sketch in December 2011, Romney said regarding his living quarters in France, “I don’t recall any of them having a refrigerator. We shopped before every meal.”

However, according to a fellow Mormon, the Paris mansion had a refrigerator and more. On its staff were a Spanish chef called Pardo and a house boy, who prepared lunch and supper five days a week. The mansion had all the modern conveniences, including a combination washer-dryer machine, which was rare in Paris in those days.

Of his time in Paris, Romney said that he sometimes had wished he were in Vietnam instead of France. “There were surely times on my mission when I was having a particularly difficult time accomplishing very little when I would have longed for the chance to be serving in the military,” he said in an interview, “but that was not to be.”

Huh?

Reverend Romney’s Paris mansion

Surely Reverend Romney could have given up his mansion in Paris to volunteer for duty in Vietnam.

For poor Romney, there was more that “was not to be.” After Romney completed his Paris missionary service in 1969, he received four more deferments and stayed clear of the Vietnam War in which over fifty thousand Americans died.